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Don Lemon Tonight

Blizzard of 2015 Batters Northeast; New Jersey Statewide Travel Ban In Effect

Aired January 26, 2015 - 23:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Don Lemon. The breaking news here on CNN, the blizzard of 2015, it is battering the city of New York. It is battering the whole entire eastern seaboard -- pretty much northeastern seaboard all the way from Maine to New Jersey. We've got you covered.

Let me tell you what's happening in major cities across the northeast, states of emergency in major cities, including here in New York City. At this hour, if you are on the street in New York City and you are not an emergency vehicle, you are breaking the law.

Everyone has been asked to get off the streets except for emergency vehicles and certain members of the media. In this city that never sleeps and never shuts down, there's no subway service, there's no bus service, no cabs, and pretty much nobody out on the streets.

If you're looking live at our camera now here from our blizzard mobile, you're looking right here at Park Avenue in front of Grand Central. You can see emergency workers in the middle of Park Avenue, a few salt trucks and emergency vehicles.

The mayor has told everyone to get off the streets. If you're on the streets here, in a car, on a bicycle in any way after 11:00 p.m. which is right now at this moment, you face a $300 fine, if not worse, if you cause an accident or some sort of emergency.

More than 7,000 flights were canceled between today and tomorrow. So if you're in the airport, traveling, you better call your carrier, because chances are, you're going to have some issues.

Amtrak has been suspended service between New York and Boston. And just right now, this city and other cities across the northeast are really on lockdown. And Boston, only trucks can be out on the road and emergency vehicles.

If you're carrying a haul and you must get to where you have to go, you can be on the streets. But no one can do it beyond that. And again, this city of Manhattan has shut down. No subway service. No subway service at 11:00 p.m. usually you can get anywhere here from the subway, from a bus, or from Amtrak, or from any sort of transportation. Not right now. As we pass Grand Central, you can see it's a virtual ghost town in Manhattan. The storm is worst right now and probably going to be worse for the folks in New England, particularly the Boston area.

And that's where you'll find my colleague, Brooke Baldwin. She is covering the story from there. Brooke, what are you seeing?

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Don, I'm still hanging on to my hat. It's actually your hat, so thanks so much. This is the kind of night where I need this kind of hat. Definitely we've been out here now. I think this is hour 4. It's really started to come down, wind whipping all kinds of ways. This is one way to tell we've gotten quite a bit of snow.

This was a sidewalk, and you wouldn't know it, right, because it's entirely covered. We're watching all of this. We've been hanging out in the harbor and I made some friends. So let me just walk over here.

Listen, for people who are wondering and worried about the storm, clearly my new friends are not, at least not so much. They're all from Massachusetts. They've been -- they've seen this movie before. Your name?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Andy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chelsea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jimbo.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sharon.

BALDWIN: So they're all stuck with me tonight because they all have to work tomorrow. So we all know there's a statewide ban so no driving in an hour. You won't be driving. You won't be hopping the t. You have to go to work tomorrow. So they're putting you in a hotel?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Correct. We're staying at the hotel so we can walk to work. They didn't want us to risk getting in tomorrow. And we live in New England. So we're used to this. This is nothing new for us.

BALDWIN: That's the thing. When you are hearing the predictions and they're saying potentially two to three feet. I know a lot of people remember two winters ago, the blizzard of 2003 --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think we'll get that much show, but that's the way it goes. We're prepared no matter what.

BALDWIN: Prepared no matter what. Final thoughts, snow is --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Snow angels! Woo!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going for it.

BALDWIN: So this is happening. Obviously, this is Boston, and they're enjoying the snow. Maybe I'll join them later. Don Lemon, back to you in the blizzard mobile.

LEMON: Listen, it's good that they are taking it in stride, Brooke, and I'm glad you are as well because we could be reporting on major catastrophes. Right now, we're reporting that it is coming and people are taking it in stride.

Just to give you some information, some facts about Massachusetts, the snowfall there they're saying could be as much as three feet. They are maybe dialing that back a little bit. State of emergency declared by the governor, he issued a travel ban effective at midnight for non- essential motor vehicle travel.

The governor is anticipating an historic top five storms. He warned people to be prepared for prolonged power outages. And the mayor of Boston has 700 pieces of snow moving equipment, 35,000 tons of salt ready and the MVTA closed on Tuesday.

My colleague, Randi Kaye, is in Connecticut. How are people faring there with this blizzard, Randi?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think they're faring OK, Don. They're pretty smart. Most of them are staying inside. We are out here, dealing with the elements and it has gotten quite a bit worse just in the last hour. The flurries have gotten stronger, larger. It's turning almost into ice pellets and the wind has kicked up as well.

A lot of our crew is turning our backs to it because it's getting pretty strong. They're expecting about two feet of snow here in New London, Connecticut where we are, Don. It's falling about one to two inches per hour.

The windchill is about 14 degrees. We brought this handy dandy thermometer outside, it still says like 38 degrees. So I'm certainly done with this thing because it doesn't work. So we're done with that. But you can tell it's accumulating here, if you look on the ground.

I mean, when we first got out here, there was nothing, like a little bit of light dusting on ground. Now you can see there are several inches already. So it's definitely coming down and starting to stick on us and on the ground.

We talked to some neighbors here who are smart. They're staying inside, but they're a little concerned about power outages because a lot of the cables and wires here are above ground. So if the snow gets too weight and heavy, then they are going to lose power.

They say here that maybe as many as 120,000 customers could lose power, but the neighbors tried to get a generator, Don, right after the storm was announced because it came on pretty quickly. They said they couldn't get a generator, couldn't get water, couldn't get milk, and no salt for their driveway.

They have two little kids. They have their heat cranked and one of their fathers lives a couple of blocks down, so they can go there and warm up. But certainly a lot of concern here is the whiteout conditions are coming to New London, Connecticut, and the wind, as you can see, is certainly starting to kick up -- Don.

LEMON: All Right, Randi Kaye, thank you very much. Randi Kaye is covering this for us from Connecticut. Stand by, Randi, and also standby, Brooke Baldwin.

I want to get to the phones now and get to Joe Esposito, who is the commissioner of the Office of Emergency Management, OEM, in New York City. It was expected that the worst would happen between midnight and 6:00 a.m. It appears that New York City may be dodging as brutal a storm or nor'easter as we thought. What's going on? Do you have it under control and do you agree with that?

JOE ESPOSITO, COMMISSIONER, OFFICE OF THE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT, NEW YORK CITY (via telephone): Do we have it under control? That's nature's call. You know, nature will decide how much snow they're going to put on us. As of right now, the snow's not bad. But again, it wasn't supposed to really kick in until now or an hour or so from now, through the night.

That's going to be the critical time. From now until 8:00 in the morning, we could see, you know, over a foot of snow coming. So I don't want people to have a false sense of security. Looking out their window and saying, this isn't that bad. Still have the potential for a major storm here.

LEMON: And commissioner, just about, what is it, just about 8 minutes ago was the curfew for people to get off the roads, unless you're essential emergency personnel and also members of the media. We're out here and we're not seeing many people. It appears that people are abiding by the rules and they're taking this warning from city officials.

ESPOSITO: Yes, we hope so. It's only 10 minutes into the curfew and I've been riding around. I just got back to the office and it seems lighter than usual. So hopefully the folks are listening to what the mayor and the governor have put out.

LEMON: Is there anything you can tell us about, are there any outages, any accidents to report at this moment?

ESPOSITO: Right now, you've got about 400 families city wide, 400 customers city wide that are out of power. You know, minor interruptions of electricity, but that's normal for a storm of this size. So we hope it doesn't get worse.

We think it has the potential to get much worse. We have plans in place if it does in fact wind up with some power outages, but 400 customers is not unreasonable at this time for this type of storm.

LEMON: And I'm not sure if you were able to see CNN right now, but we are on Sixth Avenue, Avenue of the Americas in front of Radio City Music Hall right now. Usually around this time, if there are shows going on, usually Broadway's dark on Monday, but there are some shows.

But if there's anything going on, this would be a bustling time here. But again, it appears people are heeding the warnings and staying off of the streets. Do you know how long -- the mayor said the subway would be closed.

I know you're not with the MTA, but they said the subway would be closed from 11:00 p.m. tonight and most of the transit in New York City indefinitely. Do we know when it's going to start back up again, or is that determined by the length of the storm?

ESPOSITO: That's exactly right. It will depend on how severe the storm is. We took an action to pre-emptively stop the trains and the buses and traffic also. We think that was the most prudent thing to do at this point. But as far as coming back, it will depend on the severity of the storm and how fast we can clear the roads and the train tracks.

LEMON: That was the biggest question we had, Commissioner, from people, saying, listen, I know, at 11:00 p.m. I'm not supposed to be out, but my boss is expecting me tomorrow. I know the mayor is saying, don't go to work tomorrow, but I've got to pay the rent and the mortgage and put food on the table. People are sort of in limbo, is there anything that you can tell them?

ESPOSITO: Well, you got to have common sense. If you get up at 6:00, 7:00, and you have two and a half, three feet of snow, you call your boss and say, I can't get in. No buses, no trains, we don't want you driving. So unless you live around the block from where you work, there's a good chance you're not going to make it in. We hope the employers will have a sense of commitment to their employees and take it into consideration.

LEMON: You said earlier, I was watching CNN, you said your biggest concern was quite frankly getting the snow off the roads and plowing the streets, same big concern right now?

ESPOSITO: Well, yes, that's what's going to get us back to normal. The faster we can clear the roadways. Hopefully folks will be shoveling their sidewalks. As fast as we can do that, that's how fast the city gets back to normal.

LEMON: Commissioner Esposito with the Office of Emergency Management, thank you very much. We appreciate your advice. We know that you're busy right now. If you get any new information, get back with us. Thank you very much.

ESPOSITO: Thank you.

LEMON: Again, we're on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan -- you're quite welcome -- approaching the west side -- approaching Central Park, heading back towards Columbus Circle and Central Park.

And again, when we first started this broadcast at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, there were still some people out on the roads, still some people in Times Square, looking for cabs, but pretty much, no one out right now. You see some of the flashing lights in front of us and emergency vehicles on the road.

And the streets are pretty clear and pretty passable right now. The concern was that the slush that had been on the streets might start freezing up. But it looks like it's passable right now at the moment. But the worst of this storm has not happened right now.

We're not even in the time period for it. That should happen in about 45 minutes, at least the initial forecast said sometime between midnight and 6:00 a.m. is when the brunt of the storm would be upon us.

We'll continue to cover this from the blizzard mobile here at CNN. We're covering the blizzard of 2015. We're back right after a very quick break.

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LEMON: We're out of the blizzard mobile. Almost 60 million people in the northeast are really in the path of this blizzard. I want to go now to CNN's Alexandra Fields. She is joining me now live. What do you have for us, Alexandra?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Don. We're up here in Boston watching the roads become progressively worse and we're coming up on the time when the travel ban will go into effect, that's midnight.

We have some empty buses and a couple other buses are filling up, making their last runs because people know they need to be off the roads in the next 40, 45 minutes. The governor was very clear. There are no officials ready to say when the travel ban could be lifted.

Got to wake up in the morning, assess what's going on, and wait to hear from the state and local authorities. But what we are seeing, so many people are trying to get out and clear the snow already.

You'll see snow blowers next to me. We've also seen people out here with shovels. The snow really started to stick around 8:00 tonight. It isn't exactly keeping people inside here in Boston, even though they need to be off the roads. We are seeing a lot of people walking around outside.

A lot of people who are running home with groceries and this is Boston, they deal with snow, so we've seen a number of restaurants and bars that are still open. Plenty of people who have nothing else to do but hole up tonight and hit a spot in their neighborhood and walk home.

We've seen someone on a bicycle probably not a great idea. We've seen a lot of joggers who are trying to get in a final run, because they know they may be in their houses for the next day or so.

Officials warning people in the area that they will see the effects of this blizzard throughout the day tomorrow into Wednesday, all day long, we've been driving around and seeing those electronic road signs and digital bill boards warning people.

Getting the message out, the blizzard is coming, plan ahead, stay off of the roads. Public transportation is shutting down in Boston tomorrow. There will be no bus service. Schools have been canceled. People know this is their last 45 minutes really to get out and find a place to get inside.

LEMON: All right, thank you very much, Alexandra Field. Appreciate that. I want to go now to George Howell, who joins us now from Providence, Rhode Island, with the very latest on what's happening there. George, what do you have?

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, a lot of snow on the ground here. There was already snow when we arrived, but we've seen the snow fall at times heavy. Take a look here, I mean, this is snow that's really been pushed up by the plows.

But if you step over here, you can kind of see the accumulation here. It's expected here in Providence. They're expecting anywhere from two feet, possibly three feet of snow. Not nearly as intense as people thought right now, but we're early in this multi-day event.

Don, the other concern in this area is along the coastline. We know the winds could get up to 60, 70 miles per hour. There are low-lying areas that could be flooded as the high tide sets in. They're something else we're watching here.

But again, flooding is a concern. Power outages are a concern and really we're waiting to see whether Providence really gets hit hard with the snow accumulation.

LEMON: All right, George Howell joining us from Providence, Rhode Island. George, thank you very much.

Again, we're following breaking news here on CNN, the blizzard of 2015. New England is really getting the brunt of the storm right now and it's supposed to come in really, the brunt of it between midnight and 6:00 a.m., at least that's according to early models.

I want to go now to our meteorologist, Derek Van Dam, who joins us from in front of the Time Warner Center.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Braving the weather together.

LEMON: I know. It's been interesting to be out on the roads and watching people and watch as it got closer to 11:00 p.m., the streets become more desolate.

VAN DAM: Very quiet.

LEMON: So what's the deal, because it appears for now, that New York City may have dodged a bullet, but do we know that yet?

VAN DAM: We've been monitoring that very closely. We're expecting snowfall totals to range anywhere from an additional 4 to 8 inches of snow for New York City, but the real snow-maker is going to be Boston.

We're talking Providence into Rhode Island, Connecticut, as well as parts of Massachusetts and along the Atlantic coast of Maine. So that's where we're focusing the highest totals. One to two feet, up to three feet still a possibility.

LEMON: I didn't get to ask, there's some concern about coastal flooding. What's the concern level there?

VAN DAM: So basically we've just come off low tide and are working our way towards high tide, which will be around 2:00 in the morning. So we'll see an extra surge of moisture and water coming up on shore, talking anywhere between two and four, even possibly three to five feet above normal. Some of the sand will get moved around and it's potential for coastal flooding.

LEMON: It's interesting. I've been hearing especially from the folks in Boston, that this is really the perfect storm. What all came together to make this such a big snow-maker and wind as well?

VAN DAM: It started out as a clipper coming down from Canada and then moved to the east coast. Do you remember in December when we had that huge snow effect, the lake-effect snow in Buffalo, New York?

LEMON: Right.

VAN DAM: This is the same concept that's happening here as well. It's low pressure forming off the east coast of the United States, picking up all that moisture and creating these bands of extremely heavy snowfall, and that is exactly where the heavy bands set up, still questionable, but we're already seeing several inches of snow.

LEMON: It's unbelievable how big this is because it's been winter storm warnings from Maryland through Maine and into Canada.

VAN DAM: That's right. We're talking about up to 60 million people under the threat of winter storm warning or blizzard warning. But remember, for a blizzard to be in effect, we have to meet two criteria, sustained winds of 55 miles per hour for at least three hours. And I think we'll see that in New York overnight and certainly into Boston and Connecticut.

LEMON: It's really cold out here.

VAN DAM: It is.

LEMON: At first, I was like, it's not so bad. But in the car, in the blizzard mobile --

VAN DAM: I love that. Where are you off to next?

LEMON: I don't know. A lot of people want to take the blizzard mobile home and some people wanted me to take it up 95 to Boston where the snow is. But we've been watching Twitter and people have been talking about the blizzard mobile, but that's what it is. We're mobile out in the storm and I think it's interesting to show people in realtime, what is happening, especially in a city as big as New York City, when they have said everybody off the streets, when they close down the subway system in New York City --

VAN DAM: Yes.

LEMON: -- it's a big, big deal.

VAN DAM: Walking up Broadway Street, no cars, whatsoever, something I've never seen before.

LEMON: Right. We'll continue our coverage on the other side of this break. Take you further into New England and show you where the storm is hitting now. Our coverage will continue in just a moment here on CNN. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Breaking news tonight here on CNN, the blizzard that has shut down New York City and is really taking aim at much of New England. We're standing here at Columbus Circle, right outside of where CNN broadcasts.

And you can see folks are out here putting sand out on the sidewalk and salt, and this city is virtually shut down now. Eerily quiet. By 11:00 p.m., it was ordered by the mayor that everyone should be off the streets unless you were a member of the media and are emergency management.

I want to go now to New Jersey, New Jersey transit shut down around 10:00 p.m. tonight. Travelers will have to take it in stride because much of the airports are reporting either cancellations or delays there as well.

Brian Todd was on the boardwalk in Asbury Park. Now he's out and about on the streets and he is looking at what's going on in the roads there. Brian, what are you seeing?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, the roads here in Asbury Park, New Jersey, are getting worse by the hour. We did hear from a police officer not long ago that they're not going to be able to get plows on the road until about 4:00 a.m.

But we did see a train of snowplows on this road ahead of us. We'll try to catch up to it, but they've gotten considerably far ahead of us here. So they are getting some plows out on the roads.

And there are still a few vehicles on the roads, private vehicles on the roads even though there's a travel ban in place in New Jersey. It's been in place now for at least a half hour for all vehicles and all private vehicles in the entire state.

They think the snow will come down at a rate of one to two inches per hour here. The wind as you saw in the live shots earlier, from the boardwalk. The wind is a huge factor. They're worried the wind is going to cause whiteout conditions in the overnight hours.

They are telling people, please stay inside. New Jersey, we're told, has about 3,700 vehicles that have been deployed throughout the state, just going all over the place. We'll pull over and show you some capabilities of our vehicle here.

We switched the camera to the front of the vehicle here, as you can see, the dash cam. We're going to get out. I'll show you what our camera can do. I'll talk to the dash cam for a second while our photo journalist gets his camera ready.

What we're told by New Jersey state officials, if you have to go out, don't go out for more than a few minutes at a time. But right now, with the travel ban in effect, they don't want people on the roads.

When they were talking to us earlier about people moving around in this stuff, they were saying, don't leave your vehicle anywhere on the side of the road. Do not leave it on an interstate. It will get towed.

It's hindering the ability of the spreaders and the plows to do their job. We're out now in the elements and the wind, it's not as bad inland here, a couple of blocks from the boardwalk, as it was where we were on the boardwalk, just a couple of blocks away from here, where the wind was really severe.

But it's still a factor here and this is what they're concerned about. If Oliver can come down this street, you can see a vehicle, might be stranded there down the road to the left. You can see some of the plows way up ahead here, just trying to make their way around.

But the wind is causing whiteout conditions here, starting to overnight. They're worried it's going to get worse in the overnight hours. The snow is coming down faster than they can plow it. That's what happens when you have a severe snowstorm that's dumping so much snow so fast on a wide range of areas.

As we said, the state has about 3,700 vehicles, plows, spreaders and others, ready to deploy and fan out throughout the state. But they may have to wait this out for the next several hours, Don.

LEMON: All right, Brian Todd doing a great job out there. Thank you very much. I want to get to Brooke Baldwin, who is covering this blizzard for us in Boston. Brooke, Boston is supposed to get hit hard by this. What's it like right now?

BALDWIN: It's that part of the night where I'm starting to lose feeling in my face and my mouth. So I apologize if I trip over my words. It's cold. But we wanted to move over here, because we wanted to show you what Boston streets look like.

We're half an hour away from the statewide travel ban. As you can see, the streets are definitely snow-covered. There's some traffic. We've seen really primarily government vehicles, a number of plows. You know, this could be a private car coming up, which is perfectly legal for the next half hour. Hello there. So there are people out and about, but it's definitely picked up. It's very, very, very cold. We knew from the mayor here in Boston that as of 6:00 this afternoon, you couldn't have your car parked on one of the major thorough fares, Charles Avenue, Com Ave, you had to have your car moved or else it would be towed.

Here you see a plow. Somebody is standing out here trying to shovel what they can before we see the bulk of it. I'm hanging on to my hand warmers as I talk to you. But let me walk out, with no cars at the moment. You can see, there's the street.

Just a little bit more than a dusting, but not too bad so far. But here it's really supposed to be one of the spots, don, where it gets hit by the snow. It's really picking up now and into the overnight hours.

We could see, again, what's forecast and what's reality, but just talking to a number of people here in Boston, they know snow and how to handle it. The biggest worry is power outages.

That's a huge concern and making sure you stay off of those roads, so emergency personnel, the good people who work at hospitals, medical personnel, they can get into work and do their crucial jobs come tomorrow and the next couple days -- Don.

LEMON: Brooke, you're out and about and I don't want to put you on the spot, when I spoke to the commissioner of Emergency Management here in New York City, he said it was about 460 families without power. They were working to restore that.

I don't know if you're able to, in the Boston area, if you're able to talk to any officials there because as you say, that's a big concern, losing power.

BALDWIN: Yes, I haven't seen numbers yet. Have you seen any power outage numbers? I'm just talking to my producer. No, we haven't seen any numbers yet. Just listening to Mayor Marty Walsh on CNN about two hours ago, that's one of his concerns. I don't have numbers. When we get them, I'll pass them along, but I think that will be the story come tomorrow morning.

LEMON: And right now, that may be good news that you haven't heard. Not to say that it's not an issue, but maybe not right now.

BALDWIN: Let's hope.

LEMON: All right, Brooke Baldwin, thank you, Brooke. We'll get back to you. I want to get to Derek Van Dam. We talked about power outages, the weight of the ice on power lines. When we spoke to the emergency management commissioner here, he said there were couple hundred families here without power. We wouldn't be seeing major outages this early into the storm, right?

VAN DAM: Right. The wind is still picking up, the winds which were clocked at 59 miles per hour in Nantucket. We are expecting up to 74 miles per hour. So any kind of snow that weighs down the branches, they'll be blowing over easily. We'll see more power outages.

LEMON: The brunt of the storm wasn't supposed to happen until midnight and then beyond. So I'm going to ask, and I don't know if you'll be able to answer this, but just from the models, have we dodged a bullet here in New York City, or in the New York area, too early to tell?

VAN DAM: I think we already have six inches on the ground. So it's still a sizeable threat to the city. An additional four to eight inches expected here. But we've brought down the totals here in New York City. We're thinking between New York City and the Hudson River we'll see that very western edge of this particular storm. And then the further east you get, Massachusetts, and Connecticut --

LEMON: And New England still going to get the brunt of it. Listen, it's better to be prepared. It's better to be over prepared than not at all.

VAN DAM: Without a doubt. I think they made the right call to close down the city and the roads here. It's better to be prepared than not to be prepared at all. So we need this stuff.

LEMON: Our meteorologist, Derek Van Dam, thank you very much. I appreciate that.

Again, we have correspondents, reporters, producers, and crews all over the northeast. We're covering this storm for you here on CNN, we'll have the latest right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: I'm Don Lemon. We're back now with our breaking news, almost 60 million people in the path of the blizzard of 2015. CNN reporters are all over the storm zone. I want to begin with CNN's Miguel Marquez. What are you seeing in Manhattan, Miguel?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the snow's picking up again after a long lull in the snow. We had about seven hours of straight snowfall and then we had a long lull of several hours. Now the wind and the snow are starting to pick up again.

You can see the Empire State Building. It is starting to become obscured by the snow. But look down 23rd street here, nothing but snowplows at the moment and the sanitation department doing a bang-up job of getting the snow off the streets so far.

It remains to be seen whether or not once we get this other band of snow coming through here if they can keep up. Across the way, people have come out to enjoy the snow and see some of the sites and some of the excitement here

Look down this way, if you could, this is Broadway, a place that will be teeming with activity and today and tonight it's barren of any vehicles whatsoever. We have some of the plows coming down here, but check this out. They haven't been down here in about 20 minutes. And very quickly, the snow begins to accumulate and the slush begins to accumulate on the streets. So they will come through here in twos and threes and fours and try to get the streets clean. They will be at this 24 hours a day until it's done -- Don.

LEMON: All right, Miguel, stand by. I'm having a little trouble with my microphone here. Thank you. I hope you guys can hear me. Miguel, thank you very much for that.

I want to get now to CNN's Randi Kaye. Randi Kaye is joining us, covering this blizzard for us in Connecticut. Randi, what's going on?

KAYE: Well, Don, I don't know how clear your picture is there from New York City, but here in New London, you can tell the winds have definitely picked up. Earlier when I spoke to you, they were about 29 to 32 miles per hour. They were telling us.

But now they are really kicking. It's hard to actually look towards the camera and look at the wind and the snow is turning a little bit into ice pellets. So it actually hurts to look this way. But it's definitely coming down at a pretty good clip here.

If you take a look here, you can see it's really starting to gather on the sidewalks here. This was completely clear when we showed up here hours ago. It's falling, we were told, as much as four inches per hour. Again, that wind is really kicking up.

We are seeing some whiteout conditions here. But believe it or not, there's still people walking on the streets, walking their dogs. Don't see too many people in vehicles, so they are listening to the travel ban that went in at 9:00 p.m.

But a lot of folks are concerned about losing power. They cut a lot of the trees, trimmed them back in this park where we're standing because they didn't want the snow to get too heavy on them and risk the branches coming down, because a lot of the cables are exposed.

But a lot of folks, it seems like, are staying inside. We talked to a plow driver a few minutes ago. He said they're working through the night, on crazy shift, trying to keep the roads clean, maybe until as late as Thursday. So it's getting pretty bad here in New London. Back to you.

LEMON: Randi, here's what Governor Malloy said stay home and stay safe. Do you know when the roads will be opened back up there again?

KAYE: We don't know. We took just a little drive around this street here and they're pretty slick. So I don't know when they're going to be open, but the plow drivers, as I was saying, they said they'll be out probably still as late as Thursday on these crazy shifts, just trying to work every hour of the day to keep them clean.

The area where we are is sort of, they call it priority streets. They're trying to keep them plowed because it's a pretty busy area, trying to get people on the move as quickly as possible. But no way of knowing. They're expecting two feet in New London overnight. We'll have to see what we wake up to tomorrow.

LEMON: My goodness, up to 100,000 people could lose power in Connecticut and it could last for days. Randi Kaye will be there covering it. Randi, thank you very much.

Out to Montauk now, tip of Long Island, I want to get to CNN's Ana Cabrera. She's been covering this and speaking to officials. Ana, what's the situation there?

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, it's as bad as we've seen since we've been here the past eight, nine hours now. In fact, it's getting difficult to look straight ahead at the camera because the wind is in a constant swirl blowing that snow all across the roadways.

As you can see, near whiteout conditions where we are, we've now recorded wind gusts out here up to 47 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.

I want to show you some of the drifting snow that's happening because it's getting deeper and deeper and deeper. You can see it's really piling up here. It's a good probably a foot that's accumulated on the corner here, just along the sidewalk's edge.

The worst is still coming, expected to hit this area between 1:00 in the morning and 7:00 a.m. Here is when we're anticipating the very brunt of the storm. So we'll continue to monitor conditions out here. Power outages is a big concern.

As this is an area that's suffered from power outages in prior storms like Superstorm Sandy. The infrastructure and a lot of the power and the utility lines are above ground, and so with the heavy snow and the wind toppling trees potentially, could knock out the power to residents in this area.

We're also monitoring the storm surge, expected to be worst at high tide with waves up to 15 feet thrashing upon the shore, possibly creating some beach erosion. So these are all dangers and potential devastation that the community here is bracing for.

We know people are really preparing to the best of their abilities by getting extra supplies earlier today and including gas for generators in case they lose power and in case they don't get it back any time soon -- Don.

LEMON: All right, my goodness. Thank you very much, Ana Cabrera, and all of our correspondents who are stationed throughout the region. I'm Don Lemon. This is breaking news, the blizzard of 2015. We'll have more extensive coverage just on the other side of this break.

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LEMON: Welcome back, everyone. Our breaking news tonight, the blizzard of 2015, where will it strike next? Back with me, CNN's severe weather expert, Derek Van Dam. I'm told by our producers, 62 miles an hour wind gusts which is off the coast of the Cape. VAN DAM: A great indication that the storm is intensifying. The strongest winds are now starting to pick up. That's tropical storm force, teetering on hurricane force, category one.

LEMON: That's what I wanted to ask you. Ana Cabrera, Randi Kaye, even in Massachusetts and New Jersey where Brian Todd is, we talked about flooding. And I don't hear much about, very rarely do you hear about flooding with a snowstorm.

VAN DAM: Yes, it's not something you typically associate with a snowstorm. But when it forms off the coast, dropping 24 mill bars in 24 hours, it's so strong --

LEMON: In layman's term, 24 mill bars?

VAN DAM: That's pressure, that's an indicator for the meteorologists that the storm continues to strengthen. When it strengthens off the east coast, we got the compounding effect of the strong wind that pushes up the waves and causes that coastal storm surge.

LEMON: I asked you earlier about a confluence of events that caused this to be the perfect storm. It's wind, it's the amount of precipitation, and it's what else?

VAN DAM: It's moisture. So it's now moved off the east coast and the entire Atlantic Ocean is its moisture source. Just like in December when Buffalo, New York, got hammered with that heavy band of lake- effect snow from Lake Erie and Ontario, pulling the moisture off the Atlantic and depositing the snow on the coast.

LEMON: It would be snowing in Chicago and not the surrounding areas. So ocean effect can have the same sort of thing?

VAN DAM: Absolutely. This is what we're experiencing here in Times Square and Columbus Circle, this banding effect around this low pressure that I keep talking about. Snow and lake-effect, it will determine where the heaviest amounts of snow are going to take place.

I really believe the Hudson River, near New York City, is going to be the western periphery of the heaviest of snowfall. Boston, Connecticut, Nantucket, Rhode Island, that's where the major snowfall will be.

LEMON: As we get closer to the midnight hour, that's what the meteorologists have been saying, that it would pick up. So not out of the woods yet?

VAN DAM: Not out of the woods. The worst is yet to come. The heavier snow is still moving on store and the storm is still strengthening. We'll see winds pick up and the snow intensity pick up.

LEMON: All right, thank you very much. Our live coverage continues. Stay with us right after this.

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